All eyes will be on the French elections this weekend. Nothing less than the post-World War II liberal order seems to be at stake. In this piece, Robert Keohane, the father of work on neoliberal institutionalism in international relations (Wikipedia’s phrase, not mine), tries to draw links between populism, internationalism, and the end of the Cold War.

One motivation for pursuing PPPs is clearly to get more value for money from government budgets. So in case you missed the International Monetary Fund fiscal monitor issued during the Spring Meetings, here it is, aptly titled Achieving More with Less.

Of course, finding out whether more is actually achieved, and whether results are sustainable or not, is one of the core issues for development effectiveness. Randomized controlled trials are particularly well suited to answering this kind of question. Here’s a summary of one such trial in Ethiopia that I found particularly surprising. I wonder if the external validity critique holds for this?

This blog was first launched in September 2013 by the World Bank in an effort to hold governments more accountable to poor people and offer solutions to the most prominent development challenges. Continuing this goal, Future Development was re-launched in January 2015 at brookings.edu.